I laughed at the Lorax, "You poor stupid guy!
You never can tell what some people will buy."
--Dr. Seuss

Thursday, June 22, 2017

E. H. Shepard: On the Bridge

An iconic illustration by E. H. Shepard shows Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, and Christopher Robin standing on what is the Posingford Bridge in Sussex and gazing silently at the river below them. It appears in chapter six of A. A. Milne's The House at Pooh Corner published in 1928. Sotheby's, in a December 2014 sale, called it "Probably the most famous and evocative book illustration of the twentieth century." One year earlier, the auction house had sold Shepard's long-unseen preliminary pencil sketch as well. Here they are together with their respective auction listings.

E. H. Shepard,"For a long time they looked at the river beneath them saying nothing, and the riversaid nothing too, for it felt very quiet and peaceful on this summer afternoon."A. A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner, chapter six, 1928

E. H. Shepard,"For a long time they looked at the river beneath them saying nothing, and the riversaid nothing too, for it felt very quiet and peaceful on this summer afternoon."Preliminary art, A. A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner, chapter six, 1928

E. H. Shepard,"For a long time they looked at the river beneath them saying nothing, and the riversaid nothing too, for it felt very quiet and peaceful on this summer afternoon."Preliminary art, A. A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner, chapter six, 1928

E. H. Shepard,"For a long time they looked at the river beneath them saying nothing, and the riversaid nothing too, for it felt very quiet and peaceful on this summer afternoon."A. A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner, chapter six, 1928